Phobos
by Fairley
Summary: Three years have passed. Squall Leonharts life is nothing out of the ordinary except that he's still known as a hero. Everything changes the night he meets a SeeD that should have been dead for almost 20 years. And soon, the future of mankind is in danger
1. Chapter 1: Night of the Living Dead

Hi, first chapter is up! A few notes beforehand: Phobos was written after the german version of FF VIII, so some names might be different than the originals. Furthermore, I never finished the game, so some conclusions might contradict the game. The characters Phoebe, Jersey, Josh, Angela, Kyle, Kasuko, Janna, Ania, Cassandra and several others "belong" to me, the rest is honored property of Square and Final Fantasy.

**Plot Summary: **Three years have passed since Squall Leonhart and his team defeated the witch Ultimacia. The world has just started to heal, humanity got its strength and believe back. But a catastrophe without example throws its shadow onto the world.  
An extremely powerfull witch named Artemis, almost a godess, aims to realize her plan of the ultimate extinction of humanity and the only ones able to stop her are indeed those who have joined forces with her: four warriors, possessing the powers of the elements wind, earth, water and fire. And with them in the way, Squall sees no chance of even reaching Artemis. But while he is busy trying to save the world he also is being drawn deep into the dark mysteries of his family. And what is the role of the supposedly passed away, former commander of SeeD, Phoebe, in all of this?  
Before he knows, Squall is caught between his destiny and duty as a hero and his feelings. Will he be able to save menkind?

Now please enjoy and give lots and lots of reviews :)

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**Night of the Living Dead**

_Can one lose something he never had?_

_-Sure._

Today, it's impossible to tell when things began to change. All of a sudden everything was… different. It was nobody's particular fault, it just happened. Something went wrong on the track of destiny. Someone just triggered this avalanche without even knowing it and after time, the whole mountain had collapsed. Our Mountain.

None of us would've thought that something that enormous would ever collapse. Nevertheless, it couldn't be stopped. It was our ignorance, making us believe to fight for the right thing. But who could actually tell right from wrong? We believed this mountain to be our stand, feared that someone might tear away the floor from our feet. It was just too late when I realized it was the other way around. The mountain was our tomb. It was a desperate attempt to free us from it.

I want to tell of this mountain.

For quite some time, we didn't even realize it to be there. It was all too natural. For me as for everybody else. It was part of us, deep inside, anchored within our existence like the mechanism of breathing. Like the beating heart one doesn't have to think about. Who would question it? Why does my heart beat? The edge of existential questions. Why does a human being live? For what reason? Where does it come from, where does it go? Questions, no one can answer. As close to impossible as to answer: What does this mountain mean?

Then. Then I would've never questioned such things, wouldn't have thought about it. It was just the moment I met _her_ I started to question my life, my view of the world. Without _her_, I would still be a naïve little boy. _She_ changed my life. Mine, those of my friends, my foes, the life and existence of this world, she changed everything that had been so natural to us. _She_ changed me.

Nearly perfect, that day on which everything… well, started one could say. The beginning of the end, so to speak, because from that day on my life slightly disappeared and everything that had been dear to me vanished, lost ground to _her_. By now – this day is long ago – _she_ is everything. The first look into those eyes may have been the most important moment on this beginning of the end.

Well now, if I'm honest – what I should be in a historical report – it was not this day, but actually a few days later and not the day at all, but the night. But one has to understand the background, has to understand where we're coming from to see, where it's all going to. And this day actually summarizes my background pretty well.

This day started like any other day. It could've been any other day. It started with the ceiling of my bedroom. With the milky light falling through the sunblind, with the soft sparkles on the ceiling, like water. It was a beautiful, early morning in the calm and idyllic town of Balamb. No disturbing noise, just far away talk on the streets and the sound of small waves in the near harbor. I couldn't remember what I dreamt that night, why would I? At that time, dreams had no importance at all. I was busy enough with reality. I turned in bed and saw Rinoa, still peacefully asleep. She looked like an angel, her dark hair tied to a braid, wearing a white nightgown. The lucky one could stay asleep for some time longer; I had to be at my office the latest in an hour. I smiled and softly caressed her cheek to not wake her up; she smiled back from out of her dream.

I left the bed.

Rinoa and I had married two years ago.

We first met when we were both 17 years old; it had been a tempestuous and problematic time, the first time of our relationship. Later that changed. Everybody said she was good for me, was compensating my grumpy and sometimes moody character. She was Yin, while I was Yang. There was some truth to that. After our lives became a bit calmer than before, we started thinking about marrying. The wedding was half a year later. By now, we're both 21, both active in our professions. I'm the Captain for recruitment to SeeD; she was junior Senator in the global senate. Actually, there were no positions fitting better to us than those. Even though Rinoa always said I should command the whole unit, become Commander, I was totally satisfied with my job. I had been Commander in charge for a short while, but now the only person really capable of that had taken over her duties again. Shou Laieth. Commander Laieth was the last one I wanted to challenge in that field; why start a dispute about a job I didn't want?

After showering I came down to the living room, Rinoa was standing near the kitchen and watched her coffee dripping through the filter. She was so absorbed; she at first didn't even see me.

"Morning."

"Hey…" she whispered, moving her hand through my still wet hair and kissing me softly. "Shou called, she's on the mailbox. It sounded important."

I sighed and shook my head.

"Everything Shou says sounds important."

There were three calls on the mailbox. Two friends of Rinoas – chuckling girls talk – and the one from Shou. The girls had no role in this weird play, they were merely supernumeraries. By the way, it's pretty arrogant of me to believe that I had more of a role than those two, arrogant to even believe I _had_ a role. Maybe it was all just imagination, maybe I was also just a figure on _her_ chess game, a pawn _she_ had to tactically sacrifice to win. And _she_ would win, even if it was a bitter conclusion, it was useless to determine the probability of _her_ defeat. It was close to zero.

"Good morning, sorry to call that early, hope I didn't wake you. We have a… special kind of problem in a small trabian town. Squall, can you be at the Garden as soon as possible, were in a hurry. Thanks."

Actually, it really sounded important. But as I said, that was no criteria for Shou Laieth. Starting with an excuse, then a demand and ending with an insistent order. Those calls always meant bad news.

"See?" Rinoa said, smiling at me with her cup of coffee.

"Well… what's your schedule for today?"

"We have a meeting with the development committee in Esthar today. Don't expect me back before tomorrow evening."

That was how the 24th of July 1960 started.

Balamb-Garden was a military academy in the centre of the small island continent Balamb. It was the academy where I completed my education as elite mercenary soldier and became a member of the unit SeeD, where I work since then, three years ago. Same goes for few of my – actually anyways just few – friends. The friends I met three years ago, when we became heroes and kind of saved the world.

Niida Eikara was one of them; he was Captain of the renowned SeeD-Airforce and kind of my right hand.

Then Quistis Trepe, who was one year older than me and started her career as training supervisor, by now she was the secretary of Commander Laieth. All the others had quit the Garden and SeeD after what happened three years ago.

Selphie Tillmit started a new life in Timber, metropolitan of journalism, and was now editor of the most important, independent newspapers in the world – The _Timber Maniacs_. She lives in a relationship with another friend of ours, Irvine Kinneas, but they didn't marry. The both were happy with their relationship, just the way it was. No marriages there.

The both persons the least alike in my circle of friends were Zaiver Almasy and Xell Dincht. Last thing I heard of them was that they started being independent mercs, working in a team on the most bloodcurdling Missions one could think of. They were kind of all-purpose-guys. But no one had seen them in the last two years.

For the last two years, many things changed, many things got better. The chaos caused by the mad witch Ultimacia was eliminated, everyone focused on a common global policy. One could say the world was on her best way to recovery. She had suffered of many wounds in the battles past, many had died. Bit wounds heal. Then, I didn't know the wound we wrenched in our battle with Ultimacia reached far too deep to ever heal. It was so deep that it reached the deepest and most ancient core of human history, the dark secrets that had been hidden many eons ago to never be retrieved from there.

We normally speak of the _cleft_. It has already asked its sacrifices, long before we were aware of something going wrong. One would think that in a world, which had lost its magic, nothing was left unexplained. But that was not the case. Yes, there were no witches any more, but things like that depend on definition. There were things happening.

At the end of May, a fishing boat disappeared without leaving any clues at all. Eight men and a boat, gone, nobody had seen a thing. Just off the coast of Balamb not far from here. And only two days later a second one, slightly bigger, eleven men. No tracks or traces, no clues or hints. They were just gone. Someone said the fish off the coast behaved strange, started a migration to somewhere, which was not normal for this season. But since I'm no expert, I didn't care. Big mistake.

More mysteries to come. Two weeks later, two jets of the SeeD-Airforce lost control for no visible reason and crashed into the ocean near the crater of Centra. Four young SeeDs died. Nobody had an explanation for the tragedy. I didn't know one of them, Niida did. They had been colleagues of his, young man who graduated with him. Friend's maybe. I couldn't imagine how it felt to lose a friend then, maybe now I'm better with that.

Strange. SeeD was the dream of every youngster who wanted to fight for his mother country. Young men like I was one some time ago, idealist, patriots. Young women who wanted to change, to improve the world and were ready to fight for that. We were warriors, cultured and trained to kill. And still we were children. We didn't know the price we would have to pay. All my life, I wanted to be nothing else but SeeD. If I had a different dream, what would it have been like? How different would all the things have ended up? It was like god thought this whole creation-thing over and decided better not to do something like that. Unthinkable consequences!

I took my black leather coat and shortly looked at my face in the mirror. I hadn't changed that much. My face was still rather soft, even though some features had grown harder. My eyes still lay under an most of the time in thoughts wrinkled forehead, they were still blue and clear. And there was a scar between them. It reached from shortly above my right eyebrow till curtly below my left eye. A scar which reminded me that this was not a game. It was just a game which brought those scars to Zaiver and my forehead, but giving them two more centimeters, it would have been an eye. Those scars should remind us that rules weren't made for breaking them.

In the battles I had fought I took many wounds, and I will suffer even more in the battles still coming. But no scar will be that omnipresent as this one.

"I'm calling this evening, switch you communicator on!" Angel said, already on her way to the bathroom.

"I love you!" I said, not knowing if she heard. These words still felt odd to me, even though I got kind of used to saying them. But their meaning would change in a short while.

I left.

The town of Balamb was the perfect idyll, a beautiful town which made it easy to feel at home, a secure harbor you could return to any time. Balamb was a town nobody would remember if she disappeared suddenly. Nobody would realize something was missing. Only those who had spend their lives here. Like me. Rinoa never understood what Balamb meant to me. But anyways, we should belong to the last generations ever to experience the beauty of this town.

Balamb was a tiny little seaport, without any rough edges, even the roods were cupolas and the city wall was more an arch. Everything was painted in soft color with complex lines and drawings, reminding me of the famous Art nouveau. There was seldom a car to be seen in the town, so the cobbled pavement was still raspy.

The people of Balamb were an idiosyncratic folk of fishermen, spending their evenings in the only pub called _Highlander_. Everyone knew everyone; they even greeted me when I walked down the street to the car rent. It was a family business, like all of Balamb. Wrinkled old hags with scratchy hands from their hard work, stinking from fish they cooked day by day in their Dungeon-like kitchens. No world-trade-consciousness in Balamb.

The harbor lay at the southern part of town, small fish cutters had thrown anchor there, at this time a day, all piers were blocked, the fishermen left town at night, were small spots of light on an oily black sea. Only one pier was empty nearly all year long.

Pier number 4 was only blocked on one occasion in a year. The practical exam of the SeeD education. When young cadets rode to their first mission in racy, grey motorboats – like I did three years ago. The legendary boats of the SeeD-Navy, no outsider was ever allowed to enter them. The boats that rode from this harbor to the war in Esthar, 20 years ago, where SeeD fought their legendary battle against the black Army of Adell, the tyrant witch. Adell, who we finally defeated three years ago, so that never again would a witch work towards her dark aims.

"Aye, Mornin' Squall!" the owner of the car rent store greeted, when I came by. He was an old man and a little clumsy, but everyone liked him

"Morning."

"Gone for work? What Rin doin'?" he asked friendly.

"She has a conference in Esthar today. I need my car."

"Always wait'n for ya." He said and threw the key over the counter. In one of the garages in the back of the store, my rover already waited. In the last three years, I don't remember one day on which I didn't ride to work with that one and I was already thinking of buying it. Black, convertible top, a simple rover, without any modern knickknack – no radio only playing wave-files, no Bluetooth-key, no navigation system, no autopilot. Many people say I'm older than my generation. That's why I usually get along better with older people than those of my age.

I get in, start the engine and drive out on the street, leading away from Balamb and the sea. The road leads from the city a short while along the coast, through a small forest into the central area of the island, where everything smelled like green leafs. Then across the green planes, from where you could already see the Garden, standing at its regular spot again. Three years ago, we had to activate the old system of the mobile bunker again, when we were attacked by the galbadian military rockets. But now it had returned and stood there peacefully.

Balamb-Garden was a huge building, shaped in circles with seven corridors, leading to the separated areas like the cafeteria, the library or the small military hospital station. A huge, glowing ring, showing the emblem of the Garden, rotated above the roof.

I drove passed the main gates into the giant garage in the basement to my private parking lot between the company cars, locked the rover and entered the elevator. I passed two storys on my way to the top floor where the directorate and the office of Commander Laieth were located. When the door opened, the first person I met was Quistis Trepe.

She was wearing the anthracite, chick uniform of SeeD and she seemed awfully busy. But Quistis is always like that. She had cut her flaxen hair to her chin some time ago; it suited her, made her look younger in contrast to her very serious and strict manners. Quistis – Niida was used to calling her Quinn – had been my training supervisor, even though she is only one year older than me. When she read, she wore glasses, which made her look even more like a teacher. She was popular with the student, had her won fan club among the cadets. The reasons were obvious. Quistis was like an older sister to her cadets, caring for all of them and to some extend there was no person that knew me better that her.

She looked up when I entered.

"Ah, good morning, Squall. Shou is already waiting for you." She said, nodding to the door of the Commander's office. I nod back and enter the mighty, heavy wooden door. The office was pretty spacious with a big but elegant desk made of wood polished to highest gloss. On this desk were tons of files, a flat screen and a slim computer tower. On the left wall were countless books ordered in a shelf, on the right wall were large cabinets full of files. On the cozy armchair, absorbed in material, sat Shou Laieth.

She was a thin but strapping woman, an athlete with an even, round shaped face, narrowly rolling lips and hazel eyes. Her dark hair had slight waves, she had cut her bangs accurate as if with a straight edge and the rest of her hair, reaching down to her shoulders, was tied to a braid as usual. Like Quistis, she wore the grey uniform, but she was used to wear trousers instead of a skirt. Many people called Shou a women's libber, she was an independent woman. She had been married once, with a young journalist from Timber. But during a research in criminal circles he had been shot dead by accident. Now she was a widow. All she had left was her work, no private life, she didn't need it. Her life was her job, her family was SeeD.

When I entered, she looked up. Shou Laieth was only one of the many extraordinary personalities who I met in my life. I must admit, Shou and I had our problems. We had respect for one another, which did not imply that we liked each other.

"Ah, good morning, Leonhart. Just on time." She said with something on her face that might be interpreted as a smile. She waved at one of the two chairs in front of her desk. "Please, sit down."

While most of us got used to calling one another by the given name, Shou was as strict as a leader could be and so, she called us by our surnames as if they were titles. Shou honored the rules. One of the reasons why she seemed cold and stiff to outsiders. I took her offer and sat down.

"What's wrong, your call sounded urgent."

"My calls always sound urgent." She said. I didn't answer to that, sometimes, that was the wiser choice. "But this one actually really is. There s a special mission I want to give to you. You and two other members of the old team."

"The old team?"

That caught my attention. Years had passed since there had been a mission for the _old team_. After time, this team had grown to some kind of urban legend which the younger cadets wanted to reach. It was my team, originally formed to slay witches.

"I've already informed Eikara and Trepe." Shou said nodding. Niida and Quistis. And myself. What kind of mission could be so important that Shou had to send out three of her Captains? "Strange happenings have occurred in a small trabian town called Tripeaks. It's the hometown of… one of the pilots who tragically died a few weeks ago."

"Is there a connection?" I asked immediately. Shou smiled.

"Only you would ask such a question. Well, in fact, there is one. Because this pilot has been seen there."

"What?!"

I wasn't sure if I just imagined that or if she actually really said it. But she nodded.

"Yes, it seems, we have a Living Dead here. He _shouldn't_ be there; we've been at his funeral. Nevertheless, he seems to be pretty lively. I want you to investigate this situation and report it to me."

I shook my head.

"It doesn't seem like a mission for SeeD."

"It is a mission for SeeD since it is… was a member of SeeD we're talking about. People expect us to investigate, that's why they forwarded this to me and I've decided to accept it."

"Meaning you've decided to send out a team."

Maybe that went a little too far, almost close do disobedience.

"For the Commander it's all the same." She said calm.

"There's only one thing troubling me. Why my team?"

Shou looked at me with a look I've never realized on her face. A look I didn't expect. It was disarming every argument that I might want to bring forward. As disarming as the words she then spoke. Words I had already read in this look.

"I believe we're dealing with the work of a witch."

I can't describe my feelings in that moment and I can't tell which of them were visible in my face. Witches. They were the ultimate incarnation of magic but magic had disappeared completely from this world three years ago. In those old times it was still possible to even create magic by synthesis of chemical substances, now nothing was left but prestidigitation. I was one of the selected fey to experience real magic. The ice-cold magic of Edea, the powers of hell summoned by Adell, the dreams of Ellione or the healing powers of Rinoa. But also the ultimate, destructive power of chaos manifested as Ultimacia, the most powerful of all witches. And with her, all magic disappeared. All living witches – Edea, Ellione and Rinoa and all those witches we never knew – lost their powers from one day to the next. They had been forced into the – for them – bizarre situation to live their life's without magic.

No problem for Edea at all, who had spent her youth without the powers Ultimacia gave her. No problem for Ellione, either, because she never liked her powers that much. And for Rinoa it was even less of a problem, because she only had been a latent which, without any educated knowledge how to use her magic. I didn't know about the other witches. But we were all pretty relieved to hear that witchcraft no longer existed in this world. That was the rumor, now to proven wrong because of Shous assumption? All that crossed my mind the moment Shou had spoken those ill-omened words.

"You're kidding."

"Must I remind you of my not existing sense of humor?" Shou said, raising one of her brows into a skeptic look.

"Witches don't exist any longer; they've lost all their powers." I reminded her.

"Well, I was never convinced of that and I'm not convinced after all. Especially if an officially dead soldier of my own army is wide awake walking around in his hometown."

"Shou, I was _there_, in Ultimacias castle. Rinoa, Edea and Ellione are living proof that the magic is gone for good!"

Somehow, the thought of witches still scared me. Yes, the mere thought of a witch still having her powers made me shiver with terror. This was odd, really odd!

"You never met a _real_ witch, Leonhart!" Shou said and by now she had turned really loud, something terribly upset her. I immediately responded in the same volume.

"Are you trying to tell me Ultimacia was _not a real_ _witch_?!"

"No, but do you seriously believe Ultimacia would've lost her powers if you hadn't killed her? Never! I'm convinced that the true witches still possess their magic."

"Why in the world would nobody hear anything of them in three years and now, all of a sudden, they decide to revive a dead soldier?"

This was bizarre, the whole situation was crazy. I didn't want to hear it; I didn't want it to get to me. I knew myself well; if I listened to her words I would start to think about it and finally would reach the conclusion that she had to be right. Even though I knew better! Or at least I believed to know better. But god, I was so naïve. Shou became calm and sat down again.

"I don't want to argue, Leonhart. I'm the Commander and I have given you an order. You'll go to that town, with Eikara and Trepe. You'll investigate; find this refugee from good old kingdom come and report back to me. We'll see what's behind this mystery. You're leaving in three quarters of an hour."

She wrote a small card with the name of the city and coordinates and I knew I had to take this as a sign that this conversation was over. There was no point in discussing any further. I stood up and saluted, even though it was hard right now. Her words would not leave me alone. I wanted to justify my argument, thought about new ones to take up a discussion with the Commander, but I couldn't think of any.

So, I left the office and headed for Quistis' desk.

"Did she explain this off-the-wall theory to you?!" I asked right away.

"My, you're totally beside yourself, Squall!" Quistis said, looking surprised.

"Please, Quistis! Witches? We both know this is nonsense!"

"Well… how would you explain these happenings then? I mean… her assumption sounds logic; we should at least take it into consideration…" She said, shaking her head.

"I'll give it a shot, your talking about the _Night of the Living Dead_."

I turned. The elevator had brought a young man in casual clothes to our floor. He had an even face, his skin the color of light chocolate and his short, dark hair was plaited to diagonal, thin braid close to his head. He was wearing a red leather jacket and a chaste, white shirt, then a black, quilted vest. His jeans looked rather old and he wore dark, heavy boots. The sunglasses he wore were colored orange and his beard was neatly cut around his mouth and chin, just for elegance. Of all of us, Niida Eikara had changed the most.

Even though he kind of replaced me, when I was busy he was away most of the time. Since he was Captain of the Airforce, he had enough to do in his own team, his missions lead him to every place in the world one could think of and he was nearly never seen at the Garden. He was a rare, but always welcome guest and most of the cadets – the female majority – admired him.

In the last few years, Niida Eikara had turned to somewhat my best friend, even though he never really had something to do with us, he wasn't even present in the battle with Ultimacia.

"Niida!" I greeted He started grinning, came in and hugged me like a brother. He had always been overt and straightforward. Sometimes he seemed arrogant, but if one got to know him better, he would realize that he's not like that. Not really.

"Morning, Quinn. You're gorgeous as ever!" he said, greeting Quistis with three kisses on her cheeks. He had always been charming to women, the stunning thing was, it worked. "You guys talked to Shou?"

"Sure. We're talking about her theory, is it maintainable or not?"

"Well at least it sounds pretty elaborate. But I haven't met Ultimacia in person nor fought her, so maybe…" Niida said shrugging.

"There's only one thing we can do to prove or reject it. I guess you'll fly us?" I asked Niida and he started grinning again.

"Sure thing!"

"Good, I wouldn't entrust any other with my life." Quistis said, giggling.

"Then let's start this as soon as possible so I can get back to my wife." I said.

The hangar lay outside of the garden, reachable on foot. The cadets stared at us when we walked through the hallway; we were something like their secret heroes. The hallway was something like the center of Gardens daily life. Cadets met here to go to their courses together or to talk. But actually all the social life took place at the cafeteria (all tables full at any time) or the library (the last row only for secretly kissing couples, because the books there were so boring anyone else avoided this area) and the plateau above the training area (with the most romantic view to the Garden at night). And between the training area and the library, the hangars with the jets and helicopters were situated.

"Talking about marital life. Heard the news from Selphie and Irvine?!" Niida asked.

"Don't say their thinking about marriage."

"If they do, it's just for profits in retirement pension…" Quistis said in a kind of cocky tone. It seemed to bug her that Selphie and Irvine lived in a relationship for so long when she herself was still single and nothing in sight.

"No! Even better! I heard there's offspring on the way!"

"You can't be serious!"

"Honestly, I heard it! Just think about our little Selphie becoming a Mommy!"

Niida nearly freaked just at the thought of it, while Quistis and I stayed a little moderate for two completely different reasons.

I had been married for two years now, but nothing changed in my relationship to Rinoa. Probably we would live together like that, even if we hadn't married at all. The only thing that had changed was her name. We never talked about children up until now she never mentioned anything like that. I was not sure, but now that the first couple from the old group (I like Shous way to put it) laid aside the wild life of heroes to start a family and take responsibility for a young life, I started to seriously think about myself. How would I react if Rinoa one day told me she wanted children? Or, even more gross, if she told me she hadn't been taking her pill since two months? I already had problems imagining Selphie and Irvine as parents, thinking of myself as a father was completely impossible!

Quistis for her part was easy to read. She was so ready to be a mother, if there only was a suiting father in the reach.

At the hangar, the white jet was already waiting for us, engines already running; the only thing they lacked was the pilot and passengers. We boarded, it was a machine normally only used by the headmaster or the Commander, spacious and extravagant. When we started, the air around us started to flicker because of the heat and after a moment, the island fell away beneath us. We could see the Garden shrinking till we could overview the whole island. Rinoa was probably on her train to Esthar by now. We were used to not seeing each other sometimes for days, but something seemed different this time. I had the feeling that I had to circumvent this separation. My reason said it was nonsense, but my heart told different. It told me that nothing would be the same when we met again. And it was right.

After two hours of flight, there was nothing but snow-white planes beneath us, some grey mountains and fluffy clouds. Niida mentioned that he was landing in a few moments so Quistis and I took our winter coats and prepared for takeoff. We hadn't talked a word during the flight, it seemed there was nothing to talk about and that was strange. Because actually, there was a lot going on. Somehow, no one wanted to talk about these things. Nobody wanted to share his thoughts, I never did but somehow everyone always knew what I was thinking anyways.

"Oh, by the way, Shou mentioned something about a leadership training someday soon." Quistis all of a sudden said, as if she just now thought of something that had nothing to do with witches or children.

"Really? She didn't tell me."

"She wanted to send formal invitations to headquarters."

"Headquarters…" I shook my head. "I've been working for SeeD more than three years now and never been to headquarters."

Actually, Balamb Garden was the only place in the world were one could apply for the education program of SeeD, but SeeD headquarters was located some distance away. At the most southwestern corner of Trabia, if I was not mistaken, there was a small village, in which headquarters was situated. It was said to be a masterpiece of modern architecture and in the last decades, it had been the center of martial elite. Nowadays, only few chosen ones of the new SeeDs ever saw headquarters. Many of them would maybe never see the building, after which their unit actually got her name. Headquarters was called _The Seed_.

"Me neither and I work far longer for the Garden than you do."

Some minutes later we touched the ground and I once more had to confess without envy that Niida was the best pilot around. The only thing he couldn't fly was the Ragnarok, which made Selphie his only challenge in the field. But she had given up the life of a sky pirate long ago. And now, as mother-to-be…

We left the plane and stepped out into the blistering cold. A van was already waiting, the wheels surrounded by mighty snow chains. We ran the short distance between our plane and the van, got inside and tapped the snow from our coats.

"Howdy fellas, me's Andre, owner of the car rent in Tripeak-City!" the driver greets as he turns to us.

"Squall Leonhart." I introduce myself, shaking his hand. "These are Quistis Trepe and Niida Eikara."

"Know ya well since that time. It's an almighty honor to have ya around, fellas. Really weird things goin' on since Patrick's back, ya know?"

"Did you know Paddy well?" Niida asked. Obviously he knew the young pilot better than I'd expected. How must it feel? On the one side, four friends died all of a sudden and on the other side, one other friend will give birth to a new life. One life for another. How strange this world was, directly between life and death as we were now.

"Everyone knew Paddy, ya know? Was such a nice fella. Really, none is horrified by him being back. T'is just strange to see him everyday, knowing that he should be six feet under by now."

I remember the people of the northern continent of Trabia to be very peculiar. They had a strangely black kind of humor, had something dry but fresh and funny, attributes I liked since my basic setting was that of an alarmist. Selphie was so not fitting into the trabian stereotype. But with Selphie as the only exception, all trabians I met in my life – including _her_ – had this sense of humor.

"He had… family?" I asked.

"A widow… or so… Miranda. Ya wanna meet her?"

"Yes, please."

Tripeak-City wasn't really big. If one would be correct, it was so small, compared to Balamb it didn't even deserve the title of a town. Some snowy houses gathered around small streets, there was only one bigger street and – surprisingly – one traffic light at the central plaza with a frozen fountain, which was probably even frozen when the trabian summer had its best days. Andre brought us to a small house with closed curtains.

"Well, this is where she lives. Oh, and look, fellas, there's Patrick comin' home."

Andre pointed at the young man approaching the house, we left the van, paid our driver and turned to Patrick. He was a surly insignificant person I wouldn't remember if it wasn't for this weird story. He was tall and a little pale with dark hair, typically trabian. And for a dead man he really seemed pretty vivid. When he recognized Niida he started grinning.

„Niida, old fella! What brought ya here?" he asked merrily, greeting Niida with an amicable handshake. He probably was about 24 years old, slightly older then us. But he had the friendly face and shining eyes of a curious little boy. It was strange he kept such a low profile when he had still been alive. He must've been a calm, inconspicuous guy, probably a nice person who had no problems with finding friends. I considered it a loss he departed this life so early. Maybe there was a brilliant career waiting for him. But we couldn't deny the facts: Patrick was dead and he had to go back where ever he came from.

"Patrick… wow you look… good! What about your accident?" Niida asked straightaway as always. Patrick grinned.

"Amazing, isn't it? Not even a scratch, even though everyone believed me to be dead!"

"But… you're not?"

Patrick laughed out loud.

"Come on, don't be ridiculous! I never felt better!" he said. "But why are we standing on the street? Come on in, it's a lot warmer and Miranda's goin' to make us some tea!"

He opened the door and we entered the neat little house. The inside was completely furnished with dark wood, old closets, commodes, tables, shelves everything here reminded me of the small town Winhill in the south of Galbadia.

"Darlin', I'm home! And I brought friends!"

We heard steps on the first floor and a moment later a young woman appeared in the staircase. She had long, dark curls and was as well a pale trabian citizen. She was wearing a thick, yellow pullover and jeans. It took me some seconds until I realized who she reminded me of: My mother. Raine Leonhart, this woman here had exactly her face and manners, except for the curls. Only few things seemed rather odd as if Raine was watching into a mirror that changed few details. It was incredible that two totally different people could resemble that much to one another. It gave me the creeps, especially when thinking of this house reminding me of the house in Winhill, where my father met my mother. Could this be merely coincidence?

"Well Niida, I think ya haven't met me wife Miranda yet. Miranda, this is the Captain of me unit and a close friend. Niida!" Patrick introduced his friend. Niida jumped.

"Yes Ma'am! And these are Captain of recruitment, Squall Leonhart, and Commander's first secretary, Quistis Trepe. Friends and colleagues of mine." Niida introduced us. Miranda smiled and shook our hands one after the other.

"Hello, pleased to meet you." She said smiling. Unlike all the others, she had nothing of the weird accent of this area. And well, she was not totally like my mother – as I said some things were a little off. For example her way of talking and behaving. Raine had been a strong and independent woman while Miranda seemed to be a real girl – without insulting her – not really a deep thinker. She sounded shy.

My first thought died away. I had been thinking of possible witches in this town and the first one I imagined to be one was his widow. But this girl was no witch at all. I had met a quite impressive number of witches in my life and by now I could tell their similarities and differences. And if there was one thing witches were definitely not, it was shy girls like Miranda. Shou must've been mistaken. There was nothing of witchcraft going on in this town.

"Please come in. You want some tea, and I'm sure we have some more cookies. Oh, and Patrick, Eileen called, asked if you're all right." Miranda said first to us, then to her husband.

"I'll call her back later, now I want to chat with my friend Niida." Patrick said, still grinning. We followed him into the absolutely cozy living room with a small TV and a huge fireside in which a fire danced happily. On the mantelshelf there stood some old pictures which seemed to show the family. "Ya have a room in the hotel? If not, me and me wife have enough space, ya can stay here? All three. The hotel isn't that good anyway…"

"We don't want to become a burden at all. I think it's best if we go to the hotel."

I had not sat down but walked over to the pictures. The photographs showed Patrick and Miranda, probably shortly after moving into this house because there were quite a lot of boxes in the background. Then there was Patrick in the full pilot uniform, grinning like a Cheshire cat. Pilot with body and soul, I knew this look from Niida. The third photograph must've been taken during Christmas and besides Patrick and Miranda, there was a third person. An old woman with white hair and stiff manner.

"Who's that?" I asked.

"That? Me mother, Eileen. Living just few blocks away in her apartment." Patrick explained.

"Out of the ordinary…" it was the first thing Quistis actually said since we had left the plane.

"We offered her to move into our place, we have enough room and if compared to the other elderly women in this area, Eileen is wonderfully uncomplicated. But she didn't want to. I think, she wanted to grand us as much independence as possible and didn't want to be chaperoned by her own son."

Miranda had entered the living room with cups, a pot with hot water and a box with different tea flavors. Everyone took the flavor he liked, I asked for citron. She looked surprised.

"Oh, now _that's_ out of the ordinary. There are not many non-trabians preferring hot citron to tea." She said smiling and left, to get me my citron. I knew it was odd, but I had always preferred it. At that time, I had no idea from where I had my love for hot citron came from but fact is that nothing in my life is coincidence.

Miranda handed me a half and I finally sat down on the couch. The leather crunched with every movement. I was amazed how a young couple as Patrick and Miranda could afford to live in such a large house. When I thought about Rinoa and me, loving our 60 m² and gallery.

While drinking, I watched the snow falling outside the window and didn't really listen to what the others were talking. But I can tell that there was nothing in the way Patrick or Miranda behaved that showed that something wasn't wrong. Miranda didn't seem to spend a thought about nearly losing her husband – well, actually she really lost him. Loss, it was a strange thing. Sometimes, one didn't realize if he lost something. But sometimes it was close to unbearable to lose something one never really had. That's also something I will have to learn when I face the end.

In the evening, we left the little house of Patrick and Miranda and walked over to the hotel. In Tripeak-City, one couldn't talk about walking distances. The snow which had fallen newly was crunching beneath our shoes and the sky still hung full of clouds, only waiting to let their snow come down on us. It was an unusual night.

We booked a room in the hotel with three beds, we were used to that. During hour missions three years ago we were forced to sleep in one room all the time, sometimes all of us. And we also had our experiences with prisons. Thinking of this, I must admit there weren't many things we hadn't been through yet. To the moon and back, into the future and the past. One could think there was nothing we hadn't seen or done, but still I knew so little. There were so many things I didn't know or understand.

How much of what I know now did I learn from _her_, from the woman that changed my life? More than I ever learned in the life before _her_ and more than I would be able to in the life after _her_. Looking back now, before I met _her_ I had only been half a person, not even close to become really human. How much has _she_ taught me about life and about myself? She helped me to accept what I am. But I will never know if _she_ had done it for me or for _her_ own sake. There were things I would never understand, things that had to be done, because an invisible power forced you to do them. In my case, this invisible power, forcing me to do the unforgivable, was love. I killed for love, because this one look of this person I loved most were enough to tell me it was the only way. And only one tear.

We do strange things for love. That was what I thought about this night. And all of a sudden, I understood. Loss and Love. Things that force you to do the most incredible things. They could let you safe the world – I had experienced that already. But they could also let you bring only one person back from the afterlife. And why not accept to sup with the devil if you're so desperate facing the loss of something that never really belonged to you.

That was the moment I woke and turned on the light.

"Gee… I'm tired… light off…" Niida mumbled and disappeared under his blanket.

"The mother!"

I jumped out of the bed and got my coat.

"Squall, what are you talking about?" Quistis asked, yawning hearty. Looking on my watch I saw, that I was already past one but I was wide awake to what I just figured out.

"Eileen, Patrick's mother. She is the witch!!"

"Wait a sec; we're back at the witches-stuff? I thought we had decided that witches do not exist and Shous theory was kinda craps." Niida asked puzzled when he looked out of his blanket again.

"Yes, I know. But I still think if there is a witch, it's her. Come on, get dressed, I want to meet this lady as soon as possible!"

Quistis was totally irritated by my enthusiasm; she got out of bed without a word of protest and also gripped her coat. Finally, even Niida came out of bed, but he griped the whole time we walked through the snow. Snow was falling wildly and the air was drunk with calamity.

"My God… How did Selphie survive living in a country like Trabia all her live? All that snow, it brings me to heel. And anyways, in the middle of the night, why the fuzz… can't this wait till tomorrow, granny will be in bed, anyways…"

Niida was busy, bellyaching about everything. He was shivering, but Niida was more used to southern temperatures. I kind of liked the cold and the snow, it was something that felt familiar, like a memory of home that was nothing but a dream.

And then we reached the house about which Patrick had talked, the house in which his mother had her apartment. It was relatively big and all windows were lit. Except for one. Niida searched the names for one he knew and finally nodded and rung the bell. A while nothing happened at all but then light appeared in the dark windows and the door opened automatically. Another difference from Winhill. Niida looked at me and I nodded. So we entered the staircase, it was dark, but from above us, light could be seen. When we reached the third floor, we found an open door.

"A little over trustful, the old lady." Quistis said, shaking her head. But we entered.

Eileen sat in her living room in an armchair, she was wearing an old fashioned, maybe gothic dark dress and had her white hair cut boyish short. It made her look modern and younger, even though she must've been at least fifty yeas of age or even older. Around her neck she was wearing a thin, golden chain, it looked so interwoven that one got the impression it was a living creature, like a snake or something. It had a pendant on it, a small, golden bell with Art nouveau frets engraved to it. She did not open her eyes, it seemed as if she was asleep, but then she reacted.

"Welcome. You're later than I expected."

Her voice was deep and smoky; she had a strange accent, different from that in this area. It sounded a little like the accent spoken in the more eastern parts of Trabia.

"You're… Eileen Redstreet?" Niida asked.

"True."

The question was unnecessary; I had recognized her from the photograph at Patrick's and Miranda's place, she hadn't changed at all.

"We're here to talk about your son, Patrick."

"I know." She said and finally opened her eyes, to look straight at me. "You don't believe, do you?"

"Sorry?" I asked.

"I know you've seen many horrible things back then and your life will never be the same again. But you shall not believe the change is over yet. It only just begun, Squall." She said, nodding.

"How come you know my name?!"

"We know more than we reveal." She said, smiling. I think, that was the moment I finally accepted the truth.

"So you are a witch?"

She didn't react. She didn't have to, because it was not really a question but a declaration of facts. There was no doubt left, she couldn't be anything else. She was so much of a witch, it was almost scary. "Why did you and your kind stay silent so long?"

This was in fact a question.

"We're still remaining silent. The things I've done were… foolish, but I can't change it anymore." She said, it sounded sad.

"Are there… more witches?" Quistis asked.

"Countless. The rumors we had lost our powers were spread by us, to protect us against inquisition. After the apostate was defeated, we had no other choice but to disappear."

"The apostate? Ultimacia?" I asked unsmiling.

"Ultimacia… yes… the traitor. But compared with what lies ahead of you, Squall, Ultimacia was nothing. She is going to cause much suffering."

"Who?"

"The witch."

"What witch?"

"We know not. We have sensed her, and seen her in dreams, in the stars, the mirrors, the crystals, the cards, we have seen her everywhere. She is everywhere we go. She is patient and calm; she had been waiting in Ultimacias shadow to observe us. And now she will return to claim what is rightfully hers."

"No, she won't." I said, shaking my head and I was surprisingly calm.

"I know, you must try. That's why you should search for the one who cannot lie and must always speak the truth. She knows the hidden path and can't be guided wrong."

"Then what about Patrick?" Niida finally asked. Eileen Redstreet smiled sadly.

"Patrick… You want him to leave this dimension of reality?"

She stood and changed. Her eyes turned white, the light in her apartment started to flicker, got brighter, then so weak that you could hardly see. Eileen dress started to flutter and where I could see her skin, at her hands and her neck, I saw that something dark was moving beneath the surface. The bell around her neck started to jingle in the ice-cold wind. The wind was so hard and cold, we almost froze to the ground, it hurt to move my joints when I tried to shield my face with my arm. With my other hand I longed for my Gun-Blade, which felt awfully heavy at the moment, I could hardly lift it. I saw the witch lifting her hand the same moment, to quick to be real, and the next moment a blast wave slashed through the air towards us. The blade of my weapon cut through the compressed air, but Niida and Quistis were surprised by it and torn of their feat. They were cannoned into the wall behind us. I saw the lips of the witch turn into a smile.

"If I ever find the power to let go, Patrick will disappear. But letting go is not that easy, is it, Squall"

She blinked and the next moment, the light lapsed, we were left in the dark. The light in the stairways was turned on instead.

Letting go. I had no idea what she meant. Today, things are clearer. Yes, Eileen, you were right. Letting go is anything but easy.

The witch was gone, so I helped Niida and Quistis to get up again, they both shook to stand up straight again. We left the empty apartment, there was nothing left to be done her. And none of us spoke the obvious truth of the danger, still personified by witches.

Letting got. I don't know if Eileen was able to let go after all. After that night, I never saw her again. But as for me, up until now, I was not able to let go and I will never be. Never.


	2. Chapter 2: Silver Eyes

_Could a true hero change destiny?_

_-Maybe. But what if destiny chooses the hero?_

Our first meeting was different then one would imagine and it stood in a series of many first meetings I was going to have in the following time. The first meeting with Jersey Friedman, with Delila Rendell, with Angela Carway, Joshua Maxwell, China Chen or Aaron Kelley. Of all those first meetings, ours was the most special, the most crucial. The most cutting.

When we reached the airport outside of Tripeak-City, a black Kiowa-helicopter with the silvery Garden emblem on its sides, stood beside our plane. The rotor was going with incredible noise, the door swung open and Shou Laieth looked outside.

"Morning! You were successful?!" she asked loud so we could hear her.

"You're flying all the way from the Garden to ask _that_?!" Quistis asked with disbelieve.

"Not exactly. I have a new course; you won't be going home just now, something really important happened!" Shou said, shaking her head.

"Not home? Then where are we going?" I asked puzzled.

"Headquarters!"

She closed the door and the next moment, the Kiowa set off, after a few more moments it was nothing but a black spot on the horizon.

"Great, we're going to headquarters, that's awesome!!" Niida cried, freaked as always and ran off to our plane.

"Strange. Why headquarters and why so suddenly? It looked as if something really important came up just this morning…"

"You think we have any other choice but doing as we're told?" I asked shrugging. And so, Quistis and I boarded the plane and took off.

Headquarters. I wanted to see headquarters all my life but now thinking of actually going there made me nervous. I wanted to think of something different, but there was no subject I wanted to focus on for longer. All those questions I could've asked Eileen Redstreet: Where were the other witches? What did the bell around her neck mean? How powerful was this new witch she had been talking about? There were still so many mysteries left concerning witchdom, mysteries I could not solve alone. And now Shou wanted to meet us at headquarters. Cryptically. And of course the subject on our mind since yesterday. Selphie.

That reminded me of my communicator. I took the portable device from my belt and looked at the display. Rinoa had tried to reach me three times and I felt rather bad not to have reacted on it. I looked at Quistis.

"Got it. I'll be at Niidas, checking out how it feels to be a pilot. Say hi from me." She said, grinned and left. I was left alone, dialed Rinoas code and waited. After a moment I heard her voice on the mailbox.

"Hi, this is Rinoa! Sorry, you just missed me, just got the mailbox. If it's reeeeeeally urgent, leave me a message and I'll call you back… well, when I think about it. Bye!!"

It was nice to hear her voice, no matter how far away she was.

"Hi Rinoa, it's me. Sorry I didn't react on your calls, we were pretty busy, Niida, Quistis and me. Now, we're on our way to headquarters. I don't know what this is all about yet but I will let you know as soon as possible. I love you and hope to be home soon."

I hung up. Again, those three words. No matter how often I repeated them they still had nothing normal. Some things never change.

_The Seed_. I don't know what I expected, maybe I had no expectations at all but to see her was… well, unexpected. When Niida told us we were about to land I looked out of the window. It was a cloudy day and chances were rare to get a glimpse of our destination. The town as itself was pretty insignificant, just a normal town like Balamb. Normally, you would fly across it without even noticing if it wasn't for that one unbelievably striking building you could not overlook at all. If seen from above, it had the shape of a cross, walls made of mirrored glass and a huge glass dome in the middle of the cross, and everything was reflecting the sunlight. In front of the cross you could see a large plaza in which the emblem of the Garden was embedded.

Only from above, _the Seed_ was already magnificent. To stand in front of it was even more astonishing. It was far larger than the Garden itself, probably ten floors and the most northern corridor alone had space for around 100 offices and quarters. On the huge parking square was room for countless cars, some of them seemed rather expensive and important.

When we entered the entrance hall on the ground floor it felt like walking on sacred ground. I felt awestruck to stand here, it was an incredible feeling. Some SeeDs were at work, wearing their uniforms, others were more casual. In the middle of the building was a large lift shaft made of glass, surrounded by a flight of winding stairs. Bridges lead from the balconies and corridors, from where you could watch down to the ground floor, above our heads. We could look directly into the glass dome and the sky. Niida couldn't even close his mouth, he was too staggered. _The Seed_ was monstrous.

Quistis turned to the young man standing at the reception desk.

"Hello, Quistis Trepe, the Commander ordered us here…"

"Ah yes, she should be here any minute." The young man said nodding.

But I didn't hear him say that, really. Because that was exactly the moment I saw the statue, which stood a little aside the center of the hall, creating a source of irritation within the perfect symmetry of this place. That was the reason why it was impossible to overlook this statue, which would've been nearly a crime. I left my friends to get closer, but if I'm honest I had forgotten all about Quistis and Niida by now.

The statue showed a young woman in the uniform of SeeD, perfectly in detail. She was upright and proud. Her hands lay on her Gun-Blade, the blade to the floor. Her head was slightly turned to the side; I had never in my life seen a face that beautiful and perfect. She was too good to be true. Alone to see this statue was enough to let one forget about the world.

I came closer to read the inscription in the golden plate on the podium on which she stood. In hard, accurate typing it said "Born, fought, died as SeeD. 1913 – 1940. In Memoriam." And then her name, written in beautiful handwriting. This name, which sounded like a Russian ballade, like a spell, bewitching who ever spoke it. That's what _she_ did to me. _Phoebe_ _Leningradova_.

"I see, you're SeeD with body and soul."

I didn't hear Shou Laieth approach, but all of a sudden, she stood beside me. I had never seen her in casual clothes before. She was wearing a red blazer made of thick velvet and two thin belts around her waist. Her trousers were made of a pin striped anthracite cloth and she was wearing elegant black boots. She had not tied her hair, a rare sight, which was the reason why I almost did not recognize her.

"Whenever a SeeD does not know what to do or when we need a moment to make our decisions… we go to see her. She has this… gift, to look at her calms you down. She gives you the feeling that everything is possible. Sometimes, we need that. You got something on your mind, Squall?"

"Who was she?" I didn't respond to her question. Even though Shou behaved different – she had even called me by my first name – this sudden intimacy was not enough to tell her how long I had thought about what Eileen Redstreet had said.

"My training supervisor… and the late Commander of SeeD."

"She…"

"She died in the war, twenty years ago. But she never really left this place."

"It seems she was very important for the unit."

My words were not even close to what Phoebe Leningradova meant for the unit, that's what Shou confirmed the next moment.

"She _was_ Seed. And she still is." She said, her voice full of reverence, without really telling it to me or to somebody else. And from one moment to the next, the atmosphere ended. "I have organized quarters for the three of you."

"Why are we here anyways?" I asked.

"I'd say you ask Edea about that, she ordered you here. But for tonight. Your uniforms are already at the quarters. Come on, I'll show you, were you'll live from now on."

She turned her back to the statue without another word, something I could've never done. I believed that this late Commander deserved it to at least look at her again, before leaving, and so I did. Her facial features where truly of overwhelming beauty. I could not imagine a human being that really looked so perfect; I considered the chiseler to be a show-off by making the work better than the original. She couldn't possibly be like that. It was anything but easy to turn away from her face and to follow Shou, who had already lead Niida and Quistis to the elevator.

It moved without any sound, through the silence and really fast without stopping once to the second floor. The door opened, Shou handed a keycard to Niida.

"I send you a message, when the meeting starts." She told him and before he could say anything, the door had already closed and we were on our way to the next floor.

"What kind of meeting is this?" I asked.

"I don't know. Edea said it was important that you'd be there." Shou said shrugging. On the next floor, she handed a keycard to me. It said 332.

"I hope you like it." She said. I had no idea then why she mentioned it that explicit and I had no time to ask her. The lift was already gone. I followed the corridor and when I reached my room number, a girl left the room next door. She was dressed casual, not uniform. A jeans skirt, reaching to her knees and thick, black stockings and brown hiking boots, then a black neck holder and a short, brown leatherjacket with white fur on the collar. She had light brown curls she had pinned up. It was strange, but it felt as if I had met her before Maybe she was a cadet I had recruited. She locked her room and turned, jumped when she saw me because she obviously didn't expect someone.

"Gee! Oh, hello there. You're moving into that room?" she asked, all of a sudden with a bright smile.

"Oh, no. Just for this night, just a temporary stay." I said, shaking my head. She came closer, grinned and held her hand towards me.

"Jersey Friedman, pleased!"

"Squall Leonhart."

"You don't say?! The Captain for recruitment? That's sooooooo cool! Well, make yourself at home, I think no one has ever lived in that room. Bye!"

And Jersey Friedman left. It was easy to tell who she reminded me of. She was just like Selphie Tillmit when I had met her first. She ran across the corridor and disappeared. I turned to my room, abandoned her from my thought the moment she was out of sight. No one had ever lived in that room? It was hard to imagine something like an empty room in an institution as big as seed. I unlocked the door, she opened with a slight humming and I entered the quarter. It was spacious and elegant, far more grown than the SeeD quarters at the Garden. Just white, thin curtains, white walls, and white shelves – I guess they were standardized. Everything smelled new, never used, there was no dust to be seen. Someone cleaned this room on a regular basis. But the girl seemed to be wrong.

On the bed lay my uniform, ready to wear it, but under the desk and on top of the shelves stood packing cases full of personal belongings someone never took away. They were not my things; they had to belong to whoever lived in this room before. I sat down at the desk and took one of the cases. It was heavy, filled with old books and photo albums. The other two were filled with CDs – rare sight – and novels, huge tomes. I took a folder out of one of the cases; it was of high quality, wrapped in black velvet. I immediately realized what it was. A career portfolio. I opened it and was stunned the very moment.

The first thing I saw was a curriculum vitae with a relatively big photograph pinned to the first page. It showed the young woman that obviously had lived in this room before. She was beautiful. Her face had a noble oval shape, high cheekbones – the ideal face for her rectangular shell-rimmed glasses. I had seen people with this kind of spectacles, looking simply ridiculous or embarrassing; they usually appeared ritzy, exaggerated or simply clumsy. But they really suited her fine, rather classical face. Her eyes were as blue as the sky and brought out her noble pale skin and her fine, sensual lips. Her face was too perfect.

No impurities on her porcelain-like skin. The photograph had to be modified; no human being should be that beautiful.

Her hair had a cupreous color, a color I had never seen before. It was thin but suited her obviously slim figure. My first though was, that she had short hair with slightly longer bangs – which would've surly looked good on her – but then I realized she had tied her hair back really strict. She seemed familiar, but I could not tell from where I knew this face. At least until I turned the page and read the first line of her CV.

_Phoebe-Manon Leningradova_. The Commander. Shous training supervisor. This was her room before she fell in war, only thinking of it made me shiver. All those things had been standing here for the last twenty years! Only the thought was eerie. I had traveled through time, this was nothing unordinary or abnormal to me, thanks to Elliones dreams. But merely the thought of sitting in the same room she once lived in – the Commander of SeeD who had formed and shaped this unit so much – felt like breathing history, like sitting here but waiting for her to come back any moment at a time. Her presence was overwhelming.

The crazy thing about that moment was that I had forgotten Rinoas voice just for the blink of a second. I should've taken that as a warning, the best there can be, a warning not to continue thinking about Phoebe Leningradova. But I wasn't listening to that warning. It's like small children and the stovetop. No matter how often our parents tell us to keep our fingers away, one day we will burn our fingers. Same goes for adults, I had to burn my fingers.

I read her career portfolio. This woman had done magnificent things in her life; mine was almost boring compared to hers.

She was born and grew up in an upper class village of Trabia and went to a famous boarding school for the political elite of the country. She naturally became head girl and her average in the final exam was 10 (which is the best one can achieve in Trabia). She fluently spoke seven languages, her majors were mathematics, biology and sport. After school when she was 17 she did a voluntary practical year at the emergency room of a hospital. When she was 18 she started to study medicine and sport, at age of 22 she applied at the Garden. That was the same year when the Garden was founded by Edea and Cid Cramer. She had been one of the first. In her acceptance test she achieved rank 11. I didn't know if the ranks were still the same now, but if they were, she had been outstanding. Aged 24 she joined an Officers training and was elected as Commander of SeeD. Only three years later she fell in the war. Someone had added the obituary from the newspaper to the portfolio; it honored her as the greatest personality Balamb-Garden had ever known.

And again I felt as between the two ends of life. Phoebe Leningradova on the one end and Selphies unborn child on the other.

Phoebe Leningradova had been commanding the unit for three years and when she died, she had been merely six years older than I was now. I shivered. I remembered the omnipresence of death if you lived the life of a soldier. No, if you lived whatever life. He could get you anytime, like he got Patrick Redstreet and like he got Phoebe Leningradova. Someday, death outruns everybody.

Leningradova. I couldn't stop to repeat that name, it sounded so lovely.

In the evening, my communicator went off and it was Shou, sending a message. She was waiting for us at the conference room in the basement. I changed into my uniform, relatively quick, because she had written an _immediately_ under her message again, locked the room and went to the elevator. The sun already disappeared behind the snowy mountains and only a few SeeDs were left walking around. I rode to the basement floor and when the door opened, I already saw Niida and Quistis both sitting in comfortable chairs of this lobby-like vestibule. I joined them.

"Is your room comfortable?" Quistis asked.

"Very lo-fi. Niida, may I ask you something?"

"Sure!"

"What do you know about Phoebe Leningradova?" I asked.

"Leningradova? Not much. Heard she'd been the first Commander to SeeD."

"You should ask Shou, Leningradova had personally trained her, she should know more." Quistis said smiling. In that very moment, the elevator arrived again, carrying two more guests. We all stood up and saluted when they entered. The first was Edea Cramer.

She had changed incredibly since I saw her last. You could see that the youth her magic gave her had vanished; she had turned older than I remembered her. Well, her natural age would be about fifty by now, so it was just normal that she had grown some wrinkles. She looked like a mother, now more than ever. The wrinkles around her mouth showed that she had laughed a lot in her life, there was nothing left of the cruel witch she had once been. She was wearing a long, black dress without any frets; it stressed her pale skin and curves. She had cut her long, dark hair to her chin, after it had grown nearly all her life. It was unfamiliar, but she looked beautiful like that.

After her, her a little smaller and somewhat plump husband entered. Our headmaster, founder of the Garden. Cid Cramer had short, brown hair and a lighthearted, crinkled face. Under his glasses he had soft, warm eyes, mirroring his inner youth. Grey wisps ran through his hair. As always, he was wearing a corduroy suit with a shirt and a slipover, on which an old spot of coffee could be seen. Even though Cid Cramer could be really strict and authoritarian if he had to, for us and the cadets he was something like a father figure. I looked up to him all of my life.

"Edea…" Quistis whispered. Edea started to smile her warm, motherly smile and approached us. She was our mother. The person who raised us as if we were her own children, children who had lost their parents to disaster or disease.

"My children." She said. She first hugged Quistis, then me. She greeted Niida with a smile, sine he was no orphan as we were. Well, I was half orphan, to be honest, but this is some of a story.

"You wanted us to be here?" I asked. She nodded.

"Yes and no. I myself have only been ordered here but when I talked to the woman who asked me to come, I realized… it would be best to have you and the others around, too."

"What is this all about? Who is that woman?" Quistis asked.

"She's a very good friend of mine, we studied together. She should tell you personally why we're here; I don't think I have the right to lead her discussion." Edea shook her head, Cid took over the conversation.

"Well, how are all of you doing?" he asked in his most happy voice to release her wife from the tension, in which she was.

"Fine!" Quistis said, grinning.

"Gee, I see you every morning when I come to my office. What about Squall and Niida?"

"I'm perfect, Sir! Seeing a lot of places, getting around in the world, meeting new people. Just my life. But well… I'm still waiting for a girl to stay with me longer than two months. How did you manage it to win the heart of such an adorable lady as Edea?" Niida said with a charming smile to Edea. She chuckled amused and the headmaster laughed.

"Well, I guess she somehow… picked me. It was destiny!"

"You wouldn't believe how little destiny is involved in love, darling." Edea whispered and they kissed.

"And what about you, Squall?"

"I'm fine, Sir."

"Happily married still? Two years is it now, right? Wait for the _darned seventh year_, if you pass that well, everything's fine." He said laughing.

"To be honest, with Rinoa you have this darned seventh year every two weeks." I admitted, and then I added "Spices the relationship."

Cid laughed out loud, he seemed to enjoy the day. I sometimes wondered why I wasn't the type to laugh like that. Maybe I was missing the genes.

The elevator arrived again, and brought two more guests. One was Martin Dodonna, headmaster of the Garden in Galbadia. He was an old, pudgy man who had been through a change since I last met him. Three years can change so much. I remembered him as a handsome man, tough and proud like a lion. Now he had turned slightly overweighed with a double chin, his hair was lighter, even though still dark. He had a three-day beard and was wearing rectangular glasses which did not suite his face. The made his eyes to small and his nose too big. His ears also seemed too small for his huge head. He was wearing a black, really strict suit with a grey shirt.

The woman that accompanied him was Rinoa. I thought that the moment I saw her and it surprised me. But then I saw few flaws. It was like with Miranda Redstreet and Raine. They looked phenomenally alike, but where different. For example, this woman had blue eyes whereas Rinoa had brown. Her hair was slightly darker and longer, she had plaited it to a thick braid which hung over her shoulder. She seemed a little older than Rinoa, something around 24 or 25 I guessed. She was wearing a high-necked, blue blazer and a turtleneck pullover under it, a white pleated skirt, thick black boots and fish net stockings with large knitting. But they had the same, soft face, lips and the small nose. Her face was like a copy of Rinoas. She somehow didn't fit into the posh association we formed. She stood there a moment, a moment she seemed to analyze every one of us and was in return analyzed by us.

Dodonna greeted our headmaster.

"Who is the lady in your company, Martin? Not your daughter, is she?" Cid asked with uncertainty in his voice. He probably knew Dodonnas daughter and could not believe this woman to be her. And she wasn't

"No, my friend. Nora would never in the world accompany me to an official meeting like that. May I introduce to you the new Commander of the galbadian Military? Major Angela-Jules Carway."

With a gesture he asks the Rinoa-clone to come closer. Carway. That was impossible, I knew it. I knew that Major Carway had only one daughter. And that was Rinoa, my wife. She had never mentioned any other relatives and her mother, the piano player Julia Heartilly, had died of an early age. I had to ask.

"Excuse me, do you know Rinoa Heartilly?"

"Carway." The upright soldier said, shaking her head.

"Sorry?"

"Her name is Carway. Even if she tries to change it, she won't change to which family she belongs. Rinoa is my cousin."

Well, that explained a lot. For example why Angela was so different from Rinoa, even though they could've been sisters. Angela was cool, almost ice-cold and as cautious as I was most of the time. It felt strange to face someone so much like one self; it made clear how difficult it was to get along with people like me. There was only one thing Angela could that I could not She had the best poker face I ever saw; you could tell nothing from her face.

"We're really proud of Angela's work for our institution; she's just like her father and uncle. An ideal soldier."

I looked at Quistis, whose forehead was wrinkled and her lips dogged. Then I looked at Edea and Cid, who exchanged glares silently. They were all thinking the same. What reason might there be that Edeas old friend had invited the galbadian military?

While we were still wondering about that, the elevator arrived one last time, this time bringing two men down to the lobby. Two men I least expected to see hear. One was tall and had a cheerful smile on slightly wrinkled face; he had celebrated his 50th birthday this year. His hair was rather long and dark; he had tied it together with a simple piece of rubber, he had a thick beard at his chin and dark, warm eyes.

The second man had martially short, blond hair, a ferocious look on his angular face with narrow, blue eyes and a hard, striking nose. He was wearing a long, grey coat with a red cross drawn across his right sleeve, the rest of his clothes were dark.

Headmaster Cid and the others seemed no less surprised to see them than I was. The dark haired man was Laguna Loire, the president of Esthar. The other one was my old time rival Zaiver Almasy. Laguna was smiling, as always, and directly approached me, greeting with a nod. I nodded back. No matter how one put it, no matter how much I tried to convince me of the opposite, if he was around, there was no doubt left. No one could deny the obvious truth that Laguna and I were father and son.

I did not know much about my father at all. In his younger days he had been a soldier to the galbadian Army, together with his two best friends Kiros Seagill and Ward Zaback. He was one of the many soldiers who fancied the piano player Julia Heartilly and visited the hotel bar of the grand hotel in Deling City every time possible to see her play. Rinoas mother. Finally fate took him to the small town of Winhill, where he met my mother, Raine Leonhart. And in the end he became known as the liberator of Esthar, who ended the dictatorship of Adell during the war of the Lunatic Pandora. Since that time, he was president of this giant state in the east and he was not there, when I was born or my mother died. That's all I know. Nothing about his family, not how he grew up, what he had done in the 17 years before I first met him. Nothing. I only knew, what Ellione wanted me to know, what she showed me in her dreams.

Now, facing my father again, I had to think of my mother, of how much she looked like Miranda Redstreet, inevitably I had to think of Eileen Redstreet, the witch. And about letting go…

After he greeted me, he turned to Edea.

"So, she invited you, too?" he said.

Edea seemed as if she wanted to say something, but before she found the time, Shou appeared in the door to the conference room.

"Oh, so you're all here already? Excellent, come on in, she's waiting." The Commander said and so we followed her into the conference room. It was not a big room, perfect for coterie. Shou had claimed a seat right away; beside her, two other persons were already present. One stood in a corner, seemed apathetic like a guardian. His clothes were completely black, he was pale and thin, his hair cupreous and short. His eyes were as blue as ice, he was so still he appeared like a statue, only for decoration.

The other person, a woman, sat on the other side of the door, facing us, and also seemed to be only a statue. She was as pale as the young man and had curves one could not ignore, was not as wiry as her companion. It was impossible to tell if she was of the same age as Edea or maybe Angela. Her long and thick cupreous hair falling in smooth waves like silk, she had a small face with high cheekbones and fine lips. Her eyes were grayish-blue like a storm above the ocean. Her black dress was of gothic style and – what stunned me – she was wearing a small, golden bell around her neck.

An old friend of Edea? This woman could not possibly be fifty years old. The only way that was possible – and I was afraid exactly that was the case – was when she was a witch. Edea was the first to talk, the others, me included with the exception of Laguna, just stared with disbelieve.

"I consider it my task to introduce you." Edea said with a serious voice. Headmaster Cid seemed to be caught in a strong tension but the most obviously nervous one was Laguna. He had turned pale and after a moment, he just sat down. He was starring at the red-haired woman as if she was a ghost. Edea continued.

"This… is Delila Rendell, president of the Rendell-Foundation and most important sponsor to SeeD. And her nephew, Aaron Cuttez."

Delila Rendell nodded.

"Thank you, Edea."

Her voice was melodic but there was nothing like emotion in it, neither in her face, her eyes. She was like a statue of marble.

"Why are we here?" Laguna asked, though he looked as if he was going to fade any minute.

"We're here because she needs SeeD to fight a new witch, right?" I said. Delila Rendell looked up at me; there was a strange look in her eyes. A look as if she was recognizing me from somewhere, as if we had met before. It was the same look Dr. Kadowaki at Balamb Garden had given me once. And the same look Shou had when we first met. A look I couldn't understand right now. I didn't understand who they saw when they looked at me.

"He's right." She finally said.

"Again. I don't get why witches sponsor our institution anyway if the only reason why we exist is to eliminate witches." Quistis sighed.

"Without SeeD we would not have been able to defeat the apostate. You needed Edeas help to eliminate Ultimacia. But this witch is a threat, unequally more dangerous then Ultimacia could've ever been."

"I doubt that." Quistis shook her head. I kept a careful eye on Delilas every notion. And her eyes said that it was possible.

"Are you familiar with the legend of dragons and witches?" she asked after a theatrical pause. Edea harrumphed and Delila nodded, they communicated on a level beyond our perception. We turned our attention to the former witch.

"It was many eons ago, long before common era, long before Jesus Christ was born. There existed a small planet, far away from here. It still exists in the constellation of Draco and surrounds a small, nameless star. This planet was named Arcadia. On Arcadia lived a nation, not to different from the humans of today and another race which was called the _dragons_. Creatures, born without the light of creation, that crawled out of the dark. Creatures, born of the shadow of white magic they were foreordained to be the most powerful black mages this galaxy ever knew. With their first emperor they became master race of all Arcadia and they learned to change their appearance – hardly bearable for the human reason – to look like humans themselves, impossible to tell the difference."

I could not follow the point of this conversation at all, but I was relieved to see that I was not the only one. Nothing that she told us made sense. So, Delila took over the telling.

"The legend of dragons and witches starts many generations after this first emperor, emperor Era. A princess, daughter of a forbidden love between a human queen and a dragon emperor, took over the power of dragons to become autocrat of Arcadia. Her name, Hilda Selusa Bahamuth Drakyrioth, was nearly forgotten after time for she was known throughout the galaxy as _Bahamuth_, the dragon tyrant, most powerful empress to have ever lived. What is today left of Bahamuths heritage is the line of witches. Her blood has become thin already when it reached the earth, the legendary powers of the dragons has bin diminished to almost noting. Only that what we call witchcraft is left of it."

"Meaning that witches are the descendants of dragons?" I summarized. Delila nodded.

"It explains the differences between witches powers. The older a witch is the higher the concentration of dragon blood in her veins. Adell was more powerful than Edea, Rinoa more than Adell and Ultimacia was the most powerful of all."

"But Rinoa is not older than Adell, is she?" Quistis asked.

"No, not biologically. But Rinoas mother, Julia, was a witch herself. She was daughter to an old clan of witches, therefore the blood of Rinoa is considered as _old_." Edea explained.

"If she was that powerful, why did she loose her powers while others did not?" Niida asked.

"It is true that witchcraft disappeared when you defeated Ultimacia. But not all of it. There is one clan left that has not lost it's magic. The golden bell is the symbol of that clan and it is the most ancient of all clans, to be followed back to one of the three Magi, Melchior. But that is of no relevance right now. Fact is, the witch we'll have to face soon is the oldest of all. She is the only living heir to Bahamuth, her only daughter. Actually it is insolent to talk of her as a witch, for really she is a dragon. She appeared in mythology of this world every now and then as the goddess Artemis."

While Delila was talking, her thing fingers abruptly touched the bell around her neck, so fast I hardly saw the movement.

"Artemis? The goddess of the moon?"

It was the first thing Zaiver said since he arrived here. Surprising that I had completely forgotten about him, Angela and Dodonna being present as well.

"Goddess of the Moon, of Destiny, of hunters, yes." Delila agreed.

"And you think she's too powerful to defeat her? I mean... we were able to defeat Ultimacia, as well." Zaiver continued.

"Artemis has kept a close eye on this planet for more than a thousand years. It was her who deliberately led Ultimacias attention on us. She wanted to see how humanity can defend itself. When she came here twenty years ago she faced a resistance she did not expect. She could not defeat her opponent and so she became ever more cautious. The thought that their might be others like them alarmed her and so she stayed patient, waited. Now she has seen enough of what is happening on this planet, there is nothing left to stop her."

"Who was leading the resistance back then? Maybe we can contact that person." Shou asked in a serious tone. But Delila shook her head with sadness in her eyes.

"I don't think that will be possible. The warrior, who led the resistance against Artemis twenty years ago… was Phoebe."

All of a sudden, everyone was silent as if to honor Phoebes memory for a moment. I did not know what the others thought in that moment, I did hardly understand what was going on inside of me. 21 years I had lived my life without coming across her name once, even though she seemed to be a legend. And now, from one day to the other, she seemed to be the ultimate answer to everything.

What struck our attention then was Delila, who started coughing really hard. It seemed as if her whole body was torn by this bout. She had a kerchief she placed before her mouth and her nephew – who up until then had not moved an inch – immediately stood by her side to hold her shoulders. Laguna looked worried. When the bout was over I saw traces of blood in the kerchief, even though she tried to hide it.

"How long has it been going like this?" Laguna asked earnest.

"Not as terrible as it seems at all. I'm not contagious. But… it is not getting better at all. I don't have all the time in the world to save humanity and in my current state, I also don't have the power to do so." The witch said in a low voice and was not looking at anyone of us.

"Artemis does not work alone. We don't know who the people are that work for her or how many they are, but they're good. Damn good. Before we can even think of encountering the witch we have to make sure they vanish into thin air." Aaron said. His voice was quiet and calm, somehow creepy and it suited his appearance which was as pale as a corps and his grave-like cold manner. Shou nodded.

"Squall, you'll investigate on that, you and two other SeeDs." She said.

"What? What about us?!" Niida asked upset.

"I need you two here." Shou said, pointing at him and Quistis.

"And where am I supposed to search for these people?" I asked, shaking my head.

"At the one place information lands first. Call Tillmit and arrange a meeting with her!" Shou said shrugging.

"Angela will accompany you." Dodonna said, nodding to his young Major.

"Is that so…" Quistis said, lifting one of her brows to give her face a skeptic look. Shou threw a harsh glance at her, telling her to mind her words but I could see in the Commanders face that she considered Angela Carway as uncongenial as well. Finally, she stood up.

"I guess Lady Rendell needs to get some rest. I will organize a suite for you."

Delila nodded thankfully and Shou took this meeting for finished. She left the conference room. We stayed behind. Laguna had stood up immediately and approached Delila. He sat down right beside her and took her thin hands. I could not explain the affection between the two then, but just a few moments later, things became clearer.

"What do the physicians say?" he asked anxious, tenderly patting her hand.

"That there's not much time left… and that I should use that time well. Better than what I'm doing here I can't use it, Laguna."

I realized the similarities. I never realized how high Lagunas cheekbones were and there was something in the way he moved and behaved that corresponded with the way Delila moved and behaved. Even though he was more gangling, his movements had some of her grace. A proof for his wealthy family. He shook his head.

"Do not overstrain yourself, Lila."

He even called her by her nickname!

"Adell once told me… I would survive all of you. It seems she was right." Edea said. Delila threw a pale smile at her.

"Don't even think of dieing, Lila! I can't be the only one left of us!" Laguna said angry.

"Of us? Sorry, you lost me!" I finally said slouching. Laguna looked at me as if he was thinking of how to tell me what was to come, so I stood up and approached the group.

"Yes, Squall, of us. May I introduce one of your few living relatives? Delila, your aunt. My older sister."

I had frozen in the place. This woman, weak, pale and sick as she sat there was my aunt. It was the first time I got a small glimpse of the life my father had never shared with anybody, the first _family_ I met. And the way my father treated her showed my how much she meant to him. My aunt. So Aaron…

"Are there… more siblings?"

I had to ask, for what ever answer may come Aaron was either my cousin or my brother.

"One younger sister, but she died long ago. Aarons mother." Delila said, nodding. Then she looked at me and smiled a warm smile. "The resemblance is amazing. Nobody could deny that you belong to our family, Squall. I wonder…"

She stopped and looked at me as if she was thinking hard, but then another bout of coughing got her.

"What is it?" I asked in a low voice.

"Tuberculosis. Tragic, isn't it? A disease which was considered to be completely eliminated for many centuries. There exist some antibiotics, I'm not contagious but… I can't kill the bacillus, they're omnipresent in me. It started 15 years ago. It is… my punishment."

"Punishment for what?"

I have to mention that there are questions one should not ask. This was one of them. The three of them who were supposed to be my family, froze. Delila lowered her face, looked at her hands, Laguna did the same. All of them avoided each others glances. For a moment it seemed as if Delila wanted to answer this question, but as if he knew this, Aaron posed his hand on her shoulder like a burden to heavy to take, she remained silent.

"We should go to your room, you need your medicine."

Delila nodded and she stood up, Laguna followed and so did I. She was stunningly tall, and when she stood she was more slender than I supposed. Aaron nodded at me and my father, took her arm and led her away. Edea accompanied them. Cid joined us, now they were gone.

"They've been friends since university. Edea Hudson, Delila Melchior and Adell Dane. A clique of three totally different women, no man was brave enough to ask one of them out when the other two were around. Me and Andrew Rendell were the only ones."

"And Delila is financing the Garden and SeeD? I thought that was Norgs task, the Master."

Quistis remembered our battle in the basement of the Garden when we encountered the Master.

"Well, Norg was one source of money for our institution, but not the only one. And actually, the sums the Rendell-Foundation put into SeeD is far higher than everything Norg ever paid in his lifetime. It was in fact Delila who bought the house at Goodhope Coast for us."

"Your…" I started, then corrected myself while turning to Laguna. "Our family is that wealthy?"

"Our family is old, Squall. Very old, you wouldn't believe how old. And she has brought forth many successful and wealthy personalities during the centuries. Delila is one of them, one of the most renowned psychologists of this age. If she died it would be… a great loss to this society."

"Not more of a loss than the death of your younger sister. Well, I'm kind of tired now, all this talk about the end of the world. I'm going to the bar. Martin, you mind joining me? And Miss Carway as well, of course. May I call you Angela?" the headmaster said.

"But only as long as your wife is absent." Dodonna answered and it was not totally clear on which of Cids questions this counted. The three of them left and Laguna followed without another word.

"Bizarre… this whole situation is bizarre."

Quistis was thinking aloud, I guess.

"Eileen Redstreet… she had the same necklace."

"That would explain why she still had her powers, while all others lost them. She belongs to this very ancient clan." Niida grumbled.

"Squall, do you mind if I accompany you during your investigation?"

Zaiver asked this question all of a sudden as I had again forgotten that he was there.

"Me?" I asked surprised, because usually Zaiver avoided me.

"I want to know more about this witch. Ultimacia controlled me for a long time and I can hardly imagine a witch with more power than she had…"

"Sure, you can join. Who ever those two SeeDs are Shou is sending with us, it will be easier with someone around I know."

Zaiver nodded weakly. Unusual. Zaiver and me, acting as a team? That usually meant trouble, last time it ended with him being mesmerized by a witch, trying to kill us and we had some trouble getting him back. I turned to my friends.

"Well then, guess this meeting is over. I'm at my room, trying to reach Rinoa. And Selphie…"

I was sitting in room 332, the white and silent room. Outside, it was already deepest night, pitch black, one could not tell where the dark sky ended and the dark mountains began; only a white line of snow marked it. It took a moment, till Rinoa answered my call.

"Wow, you're still alive!" she said ironically on the other end of the connection.

"You didn't hear my message?"

"What message?"

"On your mailbox."

"There was no message at all. Hey, who did you call? Your affair?"

I heard that she was not really mad at me, otherwise it would've really insulted me that she trusted me so little. She seemed to be in a good mood after all – normally, she would've gotten more cocky if I hadn't called in two days. "So, where are you?"

"At headquarters, in Trabia."

"Honestly? That's great! How is it like?!"

"Well it's… big. Shou had an important meeting with a witch she wanted us to attend."

"But there are no-"

"No witches, I know, but it seems there are at least some left. Well, anyway, there is one that causes kind of trouble lately and they want us to take care of that. You have an up-to-date code of Selphies?"

I was not a good liar at all. If you faced me, my eyes immediately uncovered my lie. But since Rinoa was not facing me right now I could at least play the situation down a little. Besides, it was not really a lie and I had promised myself to never lie to my wife. Promises, by the way, are given to be broken.

"Yes, just a sec!"

I heard her running around in her office at our place, searching for her agenda and a recent code to reach Selphie. This would take a while.

It felt good to hear Rinoas voice, it reminded me of my life, the life I chose to live, three years ago. It reminded me that I had a wife, waiting for me at home. The days when I could run of into war without thinking of anything or anyone were over. I had responsibilities…

"Maybe I should tell Shou to find someone else for that…" I thought aloud.

"Sorry?"

"The witch-case. Zaiver was pretty eager to investigate; maybe he should do it instead of me…"

"Oh, you met Zaiver? How's he doing?"

"He seemed pretty relaxed; he seems to enjoy his life. And… by the way, Rinoa, I met your cousin."

No answer. "Rinoa?"

"You met Angela? Was she at the meeting?"

"Yes, together with Martin Dodonna. You never told me about her."

Rinoa didn't answer to that either.

"Oh, here I have it. You have something to write?"

"Yes…"

She dictated Selphies new code to me, told me that she would probably be reachable there 24/7 and I noted it on a piece of paper from one of the maps of Phoebe Leningradova with an old, nearly empty pen of hers. Those were the only things I had here. "Rinoa?" I finally asked.

"I have lots of stuff to work through for the committee. If you see Angela, tell her hi from me. I'll call as soon as I have time. Love you!"

"Yes I… I love you, too."

And she just hung up on me. She avoided answering my question about her cousin and I didn't know, why she was doing this. Well, it had been quite obvious through Angela's reaction, that the relation between the cousins was not the best ever but I had never heard Rinoa that repellent to something, that close-mouthed she didn't even tell me about it. No, I had to turn down this mission. Zaiver and Angela could take care of that alone, Angela seemed competent and I knew that Zaiver was it. Why would I care?

What do I care if my aunt asked it of me, she didn't raise me, didn't even know me. And since no one ever told me about my family neither Delila nor Laguna could make any demands of me. I would quit the mission and fly home. I was so determined like never before, but still I called Selphie as a favor for Zaiver and because I was curious how she was doing.

I dialed the code and waited.

"Timber Maniacs, editorial department. This is Selphie Tillmit, how may I help you?"

Selphie sounded like Selphie. Fresh, pleasant and charming, like inviting to a long talk. I hadn't seen her in one year, since she had been awarded with the highest journalism award – the golden camera. Since that day, she had been so busy she hardly ever found time to answer ones calls so after time, I had given up. And I didn't want to distract her from her new life, this life she enjoyed so much. Like all of us, what is the reason why most of us had lost contact.

"Selphie, it's me, Squall."

"Uaaaahhh!! Squall, that's awesome!!! I didn't expect you to call! How can I help you?!" she asked in her loud voice.

"Well… wait, what did I hear from Niida, you really are pregnant?"

She giggled and I could nearly hear how she blushed.

"Yes, third month. Irvine is totally freaked about it and is making plans like a madman!"

"Congratulations to both of you. You already know what it's going to be?"

"A girl! We want to call her January."

"Nice. January Tillmit, that really sounds nice. Now… as you already guessed, I need your help."

"Uh, give it to me!" she said in a shrill voice. That was so Selphie it was almost scary. I heard a clicking ball pen.

"Actually it is not for me, but Zaiver needs an appointment. He needs information about… strange events occurring in recent times or about mysterious persons."

"Things like the jet-crash's in Centra?"

Have I ever mentioned that Selphie was brilliant? Well, she definitely was and had immediately got what I was talking about. Right now, she sounded like a real journalist.

"Exactly."

"When does he need them?"

"Whenever you have time."

"Whew… all of a sudden, he needs the _messenger_." Selphie mumbled and I guess this was not really meant for my ears. Zaiver had had nicknames for each and everyone of us. Quistis had been the _teacher_, Xell the _milquetoast_ and Selphie he had called the _messenger_. Only because it had been her duty to pass the order of retreat to hour group. Thinking of it, she was a messenger. And now she was a professional one. "I'm at the office all Monday, he can come by whenever he wants to."

"Monday's perfect."

"Great! Will you be there, to?" she asked.

"No, I'm returning home, Rinoa's waiting."

"Oh, great, tell her hi from me! And from Irvine, 'course. Call me again!"

"I will!"

And so, our talk ended. I put my communicator aside and stretched.

It felt wrong, since I was a really duteous person, to let Shou, Laguna and Delila down with this mission, it felt like I was snubbing them. But anyhow, at that pint in time I didn't want to have anything to do with all this again, I had had enough of witches, trying to erase humanity from history. This night changed everything. And without really knowing what happened, I had more to do with all this than ever before. I was so deep into it I had no chance to escape at all…

The night was uneasy. I didn't sleep well at all and was haunted by dreams that never really left me. Dreams I couldn't forget, never. When I opened my eyes in this dreams, I stood on a wide and open plane, everything dead and dry around me and corpses were high-piled everywhere. A scenario as if taken from the most horrible war. Right in front of me, I saw a tree. It had no leafs at all and was black as hell, and it was ablaze. But it seemed as if the tree was growing in the fire instead of shrinking. I heard a thunder, and when I looked up to the sky I saw that it was pitch-black as oil. It started to rain, but not water but blood. The thunder that filled the air was made of screams from torture and death. And when I turned, I saw what I least expected. Ultimacias castle, hanging in the clouds, as dark and dangerous as I remembered it, enamored to the earth with giant chains of steel. Lightning illuminated the black monument of chaos and at one of the towers I saw a monstrous creature with wings. It took flight and came closer, I instinctively searched for my Gun-Blade but it was not there. And even if, the beast was to fast for me to react on time, when I turned back to it, the last thing I saw was its horrid appearance. A giant dragon-like creature with blue scales and a pair of glowing eyes, contrasting the darkness. I saw its huge claws, each as sharp as a sword raving towards me and –

I woke by instant. I left the bed as if ready to attack someone, as if someone had emptied a bucket of ice-cold water above my head. It was half past three; I was all wet of sweat and searched for my bottle of water. My heart was beating and I was freezing. I stood up and went to the window to distract myself of the pictures I had seen in my dream. The bloody rain, the burning tree, Ultimacias castle. The dragon. Maybe this dream was just my way of connecting my experiences with what Edea and Delila told us today, about witches being related to dragons.

I looked outside. The night was clear, you could see every single star in the icy air; the moon let the snow on the lands shine like silver planes. It should've been as bright as daylight in my room, but it wasn't. I placed the bottle of water on the desk without looking and that moment I saw a reflection in the window glass. Something behind me. I didn't move for a few seconds, because I was not sure if my vision was not just still dazzled by the nightmare. But there was something, or somebody, standing in the darkest corner of the room. Or even worse, the darkness seemed to be produced by this presence.

So I did what every soldier would've done. Shot first, and then ask the questions. I turned and in the same movement took my Gun-Blade lifting the blade to slay the intruder. But my blade collided with another blade. It was a good worked up, perfectly balanced Gun-Blade; she seemed to be a little lighter than my own. The blade was made of onyx-black steel and ornaments in bloody red were stamped on it. The fire mechanism was magnificently artful. I realized all of this with just one look at the weapon. The professional eye of a soldier. Everything else took a bit longer.

I looked up; my glance met that of a pair of silver eyes. I really mean silver; they were not just gray – which would've been nothing spectacular if you had met Delila Rendell just a few hours before. No. Those eyes were as silver as mercury, shining dynamically. And the face to which they belonged was that of a woman with delicately chiseled features, high cheekbones, a fine nose and shell-rimmed glasses. It was impossible to guess her age, she could've been of the same age as I was, but also she could've been as old as time itself. Her hair was cupreous, her skin as pale and even as porcelain and she was wearing a pitch-black coat, boots and gloves, making her appear like a shadow with the only thing you saw of her being her face. Her eyes were surrounded with black kohl, but that was the only make-up she was wearing.

I took a step back, was to surprised to really understand what I was seeing.

"You… you are…"

It was like poison. I was not able to speak out her name, for it felt as if it was going to tear me to pieces the very instant it crossed my lips. Was I still dreaming? That was the only reasonable explanation for what I saw.

"Phoebe Leningradova." She completed my sentence. The softest, smoothest voice I had ever heard. I felt as if my own voice somehow disappeared, my throat was as dry as dust. This was not possible! She could not be here, she just couldn't! But anyways, I saw her; she was standing right there, in all her beauty. No, neither the statue nor the photograph had been wrong. They had understated her.

And then I saw something I should've probably expected. When she stepped closer into the moonlight and her eyes seem to get so bright it really unsettled me I saw a small, golden bell around her neck, gently jingling at each of her sinuous movements. The same bell which Eileen Redstreet and Delila had.

"You're a witch!" I gasped. I smile flew over her perfect lips.

"The only one."

"But… you're dead, you died twenty years ago."

She didn't respond to me at all.

"You think you can stop her alone, all by yourself? You're that convinced of your own powers that you believe you can pass on where others failed. When she arrives, she'll triumph, it's inevitable, it's destiny."

"I won't let this happen!"

That was not easy, to speak felt like insulting her while on the other hand I wanted nothing but to get drunk simply by the sound of her voice. I was caught in this dream. Caught in a dream with a witch that died twenty years ago but had not aged one year. This dynamited my sense of logic and reason, this dream would drive me crazy, and if not the dream, then the morning after when I would realize that it was really nothing but a dream. I had gone mad the moment I looked into those eyes, anyone would.

She did not move her lips, but I was sure to have seen a smile in her eyes. Suddenly, without me even seeing that she moved, she stood right in front of me. So close, I felt her breath on my lips and could sense her special fragrance, making my legs turn to jelly. This fragrance I would recognize among millions of others; lilies with a touch of the ocean breeze I had known from the past. A past, farther away than another life. A past I couldn't even remember clearly. And my life up until that night seemed like the life of another person who had nothing to do with me anymore.

For only a moment her hand lay on my chest, I felt her cold fingers through the cloth of my shirt.

"So, the hero seeks to change destiny. But how is that possible, if destiny chooses the hero?"

She came so close; I could almost feel her lips touching mine.

But the very next second, she vanished. Far more spectacular than she had actually arrived. She dissolved into thousands of black feathers. But even after she was gone I still had the creeps, my heart nearly exploded and I still felt her lips so close, her hand on my chest and it felt as if her eyes had burnt an image of her into my soul. She would never let me go. I realized, that I had gotten in far too deep than it was good for me. Deeper than ever. I had no choice if I wanted to find out who this woman was. And if I was not to see her again, it would kill me.

I had left the life of this other Squall Leonhart behind and had turned into another person. My life as Captain for recruitment, my life with Rinoa. All that lost it's meaning. From this night on, everything I meant was slowly replaced by this one person. Phoebe Leningradova.

The first look of _her_ eyes.


End file.
